Retaliation
by Rhiannon Aurorafai
Summary: When NCIS investigate a faulty crime scene, they discover the true reasons behind the set up after the loss of two of their own. Please Review!
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: I do not, and will not (unfortunately) own any of the characters, etc. involved in the story. I wish I did, but I don't. George is my own creation. Go me. I kill my own creation.

MAJOR THANKS TO: Pog Mahon for being my best beta ever! She catches all my dumb mistakes and makes me look good, so cookies to her! YAY POG!

Ok, here we go.

Chapter 1

George Hallen drove down the highway while listening to the NPR news report about Iraq. He shut it off with a snap, giving the radio an angry look. More news on how many soldiers had been killed that day. More news on how many of his friends from the Marine Corps had been killed. More bull shit, in his opinion.

He himself had already served two years in the Marine Corps in Iraq and had watched three of his buddies die there already. He'd shot two squad bombers himself during his fourth month on duty. He felt like he'd aged twenty years since his first day as a Petty Officer. He took a sip of his coffee and continued his driving.

He saw the sign for his next exit, Clark Street, and turned off onto it. The road leading off Clark Street was a dingy dirt road which bore a small sign which read "Chimeston Road". Down the way was a small blue house surrounded by a brown picket fence. This was his destination at last.

Upon reaching the house, he parked his silver Chevrolet Aveo and gently climbed out, paying mind to step with his right foot first seeing that most of his left leg was gone. After hopping out of the car, he grabbed his crutch and began to walk to the gate. With an easy push it opened, and he limped towards the front gate.

The moment he got to the front door, he knew something was wrong. The hinge was broken off and the door was ajar. George pushed the door gently, yet the moment he touched it, the door fell off. Slightly panicked, he hastened his steps towards where he said he'd meet his friend. He passed the stairway and was just about to reach the patio door when he slipped and fell flat on his back. He felt a fierce stab in his chest and gasped as he stared at the now bloodied knife tip sticking out of it. The view before him began to go hazy as blood pooled around him and spurted out of the wound. All he could think of was his buddies who had been killed and how this must have been the terror they had in the last few seconds in their lives.

A blood bubble popped on the side of his mouth as he felt his heart slow to a dull thump, and the second before he died, he reached his arm to his neck and grasped his dog tags in his now pale white hands.


	2. Chapter 2

Once again, thanks to Pog Mahon for being my beta, cause she's awesome like that and she'll suffer through my bad grammar and such just to make us all happy readers! Continue!

Chapter 2 

"Tony, what on dirt are you doing?"

NCIS Agent Anthony DiNozzo felt his heart leap at this unexpected and rather unwelcome comment. He smoothed out his brown hair and glared up at fellow Agent Ziva David for causing him such a start. She just glared right back at him with an accusatory stare, which her dark eyes were definitely meant to do. She had just caught Tony looking up something inappropriate on his computer and she, being the nosy person she was, decided to find out what exactly he had been looking at.

"First off, my foreign friend, the expression is 'What on earth' not 'what on dirt'." Tony said as he straightened his now mussed clothes. "And anyways, it's none of your business what I'm doing."

"Aha!" Ziva exclaimed, flicking a dark brown lock from her face. "So you are doing something."

"I never said that," he said, an annoyed expression crossing his face.

"But you insinuated it, which is just the same." She pointed out while moving over to where Tony's computer sat. Tony hastily moved to close the screen but Ziva whipped around and grabbed the wireless mouse from his outstretched hand.

"Ha," she said, thinking that she had just outwitted him, "can't delete it now."

Tony gave her a smug look and pressed the "escape" key on his keyboard. "Oh yes, I can."

Ziva crumpled up a piece of paper on his desk and threw it at Tony's face. He caught it inches before it hit his nose.

"Feisty, aren't we?" he said, a tormenting smile creeping onto his face. "That's a trait that I've always found rather kinky."

"What's kinky, DiNozzo?"

Ziva scurried back to her desk as Tony threw away the paper. "Nothing boss." he said, looking at Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs with an embarrassed look on his face.

Gibbs walked behind Tony's desk and gave him a swift slap up the back of his head. "Don't lie, DiNozzo."

"Right boss." Tony said, rubbing his head gingerly.

Gibbs shook his head and smiled slightly. He secretly thought how Tony reminded him of himself when he was younger, but he would never admit that to Tony, even if his life depended on it.

"We've got a case." Gibbs said, moving to his desk to collect his weapons and forensics kit.

"What is it?" Ziva asked, also collecting her stuff.

"Two dead bodies in Greensville. McGee's there already. Let's move it."

Gibbs placed his NCIS hat onto his silver-haired head and marched to the elevator, Tony and Ziva on his heels.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Once the team had arrived at the crime scene, they all jumped out of the silver NCIS SUV and went into the house to investigate the scene before them. One body lay on his back, something sharp sticking out of his chest. The other was another dead male, lying sprawled on the ground on his stomach, with a pool of blood around his head. Gibbs gave the scene a quick look and then turned to face his team.

"DiNozzo, sketch and pics. Ziva, evidence collection. Go."

They went off in opposite directions to fulfill their designated duties as Gibbs walked over to where the first dead body lay and where their Medical Examiner sat measuring the liver temperature of the body.

"What do we got, Duck?" he asked the elderly man.

"Ah, Jethro!" he exclaimed, looking up at his friend and coworker. "You're a little late today."

"Bad traffic." He stated plainly. "What can you tell me?"

"Well, this case is no mystery. The man slipped and fell backwards on this knife here," he turned the body so Gibbs could see the weapon, "and then bled to death right here. These skid marks," he pointed to the bloodied marks on the floor in front of the man, "show where he slipped in the blood, most likely from our victim over there. Abigail should be able to tell us whose blood it is."

Gibbs nodded. "Who is he?"

"Well, this poor chap was still wearing his old dog tags from his tour in Iraq, which, I am guessing, is where he lost his leg."

Ducky handed the tags to Gibbs, who turned them in order to read the information on the tags.

"Petty Officer George Hallen," Gibbs read, giving the dead man an appraising look. "Poor guy can't have been more than thirty-five."

"Your guess is as good as mine, Jethro." said Ducky, pulling the thermometer from their DB.

"Time of death?" Gibbs asked.

"Well, according to his liver temp, he's been dead for about six hours. I'll have Mr. Palmer send him back to the Morgue. Now, let's see what Mr. Palmer has on the other body."

Gibbs and Ducky walked over to where the second dead man lay. Measuring that man's liver temp was Jimmy Palmer, Ducky's rather enthusiastic Medical Assistant, and Timothy McGee, one of Gibbs' agents who was quite the genius at computers, who was taking down information from the cop next to him. McGee looked up from his notepad and thanked the officer for his time.

"Whatcha got, McGee." Gibbs asked both McGee and Palmer.

"DB's name is Wesley Ford." McGee began, looking at his notes. "Forty year old Marine Sergeant. His gardener found him here. He checks out, but we got his prints anyways to eliminate those from any other prints found here."

"Anything else?" Gibbs asked Palmer.

"This guy's been dead for approximately eight hours, but I can't determine the cause of death yet." said Palmer, watching as Ducky cast an interested eye over the DB.

"Yes, Mr. Palmer is correct, we are currently unable to determine the cause of death for this poor man, but-"

"You'll have more for me once we get back to Autopsy." Gibbs said, finishing Ducky's sentence for him, smiling slightly. "Thanks Ducky."

Ducky nodded at Gibbs and resumed his investigation of the two bodies.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

-flash-flash-FLASH-

Ziva blinked very quickly, trying to rid the small stars of light from Tony's camera flashes in her face. She scowled at Tony and rubbed her eyes with her free hand. With her other hand, she resumed her search for any remaining evidence in the kitchen. Tony grinned as he reviewed the pictures of Ziva's contorted face.

"Hey Tony, come here."

Tony looked up from his camera and hastened over to where Ziva was crouched in the corner of the kitchen, below the sink. "Whatcha got?"

Ziva tilted her head slightly to get a better look at whatever she was scrutinizing. She pulled a Integri swab from her case and took a sample of some kind of substance on the floor. Tony gave the patch of liquid a closer look and gave a soft "Ah," of recognition. Blood.

"Possibly the victim's?" she asked him, capping the evidence and marking it off.

"Abby can figure that out for us." Tony said, taking a picture of the blood pool.

They both stood up and looked around for any more evidence to find. They had already gathered three more samples of blood (one from the second DB's body, one from the knife, and the other from the bathroom garbage can) as well as one anonymous fibers, two partial prints, and one full print found on the knife in the first DB's back. All would be sent to the resident lab rat at NCIS, Abby Sciuto, who would be able to find out anything that could possibly be discovered from any piece of evidence.

Finally, McGee came over to them in the kitchen. "Gibbs says to get the evidence back to the lab. He says we've got all we can get for now."

"Alright, thanks McGeek." Tony said, giving McGee his infamous Anti-Probie look.

McGee scowled at Tony but didn't say anything else. Ziva followed him from the room while managing to give Tony a Gibbs-like slap up the back of his head.

"I'm helping the Probie build character." he said flatly, rubbing the spot where he was hit. "There's nothing wrong with that."

"Right." she said and left without a word.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Ok, so that's the end of the chapter. For those of you who don't know, an Integri Swab is those cotton swab like things that CSI's and other guys like them use to either swab for DNA on the inside of a person's cheek, or to get a sample of any liquid found at a crime scene. Ok, now that I've given you that lesson, go review please!!!


	3. Chapter 3

Alrighty, so here we go with Chapter 3. Sit back, enjoy, and give warm fuzzies to my beta, Pog Mahon, who kicks ass (no pun intended). So yeah, enjoy!

Chapter 3

Once back at NCIS, Gibbs went down to the lab to visit Abby to get an update on the fingerprints and blood that he had Tony send down a few hours ago. Taking the elevator down to the bottom floor, he exited it and entered the music filled lab, which belonged to Abby Sciuto.

As he walked in, he spotted Abby sitting hunched over at her main computer desk. She was half-asleep at the desk, her hand holding her drooping head up as she watched the computer screen search a match for the partial print she was processing. Gibbs stopped behind her and shook the full Caf-Pow drink he had in his hand. Abby sat straight up in her seat, and spun around to stare with glee at Gibbs and the drink.

"My favorite, how did you know?" she asked, reaching out for the drink.

Gibbs handed it to her and signed, _I just know those things._

_Of course,_ she signed back to him. With two deaf parents, Abby was fluent in Sign Language and had consequently taught it to Gibbs during their time working together.

"You got anything yet Abbs?" he asked, resigned to his usual manner of speech once more.

"You betcha," she said, and pulled Gibbs and her Caf-Pow over to the machines which lined her lab.

"So," she began, her green eyes sparkling with interest, "the blood on the knife was a match to both victims' blood."

"So the killer used that knife to kill his first victim, and then left the knife on the ground for the other victim to fall on?" Gibbs asked, a curious expression on his face. Not many murderers that he had heard of had ever left the weapon at the scene of the crime, especially with fingerprints on it.

"Looks like it," she said, and then continued, "then, the blood found by the sink matched the first victim's DNA, so quite possibly the killer tried to wash his hands off after the murder. Then, the blood in the garbage can was, once again, the blood from the first victim. I guess Ducky's guess of the second victim's death is right then. The second victim was an unlucky accident."

"Maybe," Gibbs said, still unsure of the truth to this. "What about the fibers that Ziva found?"

"Those," she said, moving over to her other machines, "were made of mostly cotton based fibers, most likely from a bed sheet or shirt from the looks of it."

"And the prints?"

"Running them now," she began, hurrying over to her computer to check on its progress. "Aha! Here you go!"

She pulled up the results and then, quite suddenly, changed her expression to one of great confusion.

"Abbs?" Gibbs asked, moving over to her and the computer.

"Well, I got something, but it's weird, Gibbs… here,"

She moved over to allow Gibbs to see the results. "I couldn't find anything from the partials, but I'm still having them search anyways. However, I found a match to the full print, but…"

"But what, Abby?" Gibbs asked, suspense filling his mind.

Abby typed something into her computer and the print came up with its match. "This is the match to the print we found on the murder weapon." she said, that strange air to her voice.

Gibbs stared at the results with a dumbfounded face. "Are you sure this is correct?"

"Yeah. Gibbs, something's not right…"

Gibbs nodded and motioned for her to follow him. She did so, rubbing her hands nervously along her skull and crossbones skirt. They rang for the elevator and entered it, punching the number for Ducky's hall as they went.

"Gibbs," Abby began, still rubbing her hands, "how could a two year old murder a man?"

Gibbs gazed back at her as the doors closed and said, "They can't."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Down in the Morgue, Dr. Donald Mallard (or Ducky to his coworkers and friends) was completely astounded by his most recent discovery by him and his Morgue assistant, Jimmy Palmer. Just as he was about to quadruple check his findings when the doors slid open to admit Gibbs and Abby into the room.

"Jethro! Just the man I wanted to see. And Abby, just the woman I wanted to see as well." Ducky said, moving over to great them.

"Same here, Duck." said Gibbs, giving the cadavers to his right a look over. "What can you tell us?"

"Well, our second victim here, as Mr. Palmer and I both predicted, had an accidental death caused by this knife," Ducky showed them the weapon in question, "which is shown by the angle in which the knife was forced into his upper back. The knife then penetrated his heart, which did not immediately kill him. In the end, this man's death was caused by a massive trauma to the aorta as well as a massive blood loss."

"What about the Sergeant?" Abby asked Ducky eagerly.

"Patience, my dear, I was getting to that." Ducky said calmly and they moved towards the first cadaver.

"This death, unlike his comrade's over here, was intentional. This man, who, after further investigations, was stabbed with the same knife as the other man in his left ear which, being in the pool of blood, made it difficult for us to find the entry wound. However," he continued, "this wound was not fatal although rather painful. Aside from the puncture from the knife, this man has no other visible signs of assault or trauma."

Ducky moved over towards the head of the man and lifted up the small basin, which contained the man's brain. "Now here's the curious part." he said, gently picking up the brain as he continued. "This man had a severe stroke, caused by two blood clots in his arteries which allow the blood to flow into his brain. What really astounds me though, is the fact that these clots were created naturally, with no outside assistance whatsoever."

Gibbs stared at Ducky for a minute before saying, "So you're saying that his death was natural?" Ducky nodded.

"But what about the knife?" Abby asked, looking rather surprised by this sudden setback.

"The Sergeant was indeed stabbed with it, and before his death as well. I approximate the stabbing to have occurred only a few minutes before his untimely death." Ducky finished with a look at Abby. "Did you come to ask me something?"

Abby snapped out of her half trance and nodded at Ducky. "Yeah, I did." And she pulled out her fingerprint results from the knife. "Is it possible that a young child could have stabbed our victim?"

Ducky stared down at the results with unblinking eyes. Then, he shook his head quickly. "No, not a child that young. Are you sure this is correct?" Abby nodded. Ducky continued, "Well, someone with such small size and limited strength could have never produced enough force to stab deep into the man's ear and towards the skull. No, this isn't the right attacker at all."

Gibbs nodded and took the results back from Ducky. "Thanks, Duck." he said, and he and Abby turned around and left the Morgue in search of Tony, McGee, and Ziva.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey y'all! Yes, I did just say "y'all". Blame my countryness. Anyhoo, here's the next chapter. I'm gonna aim for a pretty regular update from now on, hopefully once a week, so expect the next chapter sometime around next Wednesday. So yeah, please review and enjoy!**

**PS - For those of you who don't speak toddler (that is, 2 years old and soon to go onto 3), here's a dictionary: "Doow" door**

** "Pway" Play**

**"tol'" told**

**"an'" and**

**Any other questions, ask me!**

Chapter 4 

Back in the Squad Room, Tony, Ziva, and McGee were hastily looking for any information regarding the case which they could then feed to the rather impatient Gibbs. Well, at least Ziva and McGee were searching.

"You know," began Ziva and she was once again placed on hold by the DMV in order to confirm ownership of the car outside of the DB's house, "all of this would be done a million times faster if you'd just help us figure out who killed these men."

Tony laughed quietly obnoxiously. "I'm supervising the efforts of the Probie."

Ziva looked over at Tony's desk. "While playing a computer game?"

Tony moved the game's box out of Ziva's range of sight with a wary look, "It helps me think."

"You're going to need more games if that's what it does." she said sarcastically.

Tony sneered and looked over at McGee, who was wrapping up a conversation on the phone. "Yes… Alright, thank you very much." McGee hung up and turned to face someone rapidly approaching from behind Tony. "Boss, I found the kid who apparently murdered our Sergeant."

"Two-year-olds don't murder, McGee." Gibbs said as he walked over to McGee's desk.

"Right, boss." he said, and returned to his previous statement. "Anyways, I just got off the phone with the mother. I didn't tell her the details but I asked if we could come by to ask some questions, and she's allowing it, but here's where it gets hinky."

"Hinky?" Ziva asked Tony quietly.

"It's an Abby-ism for something weird." he murmured, and they redirected their attention back to McGee and Gibbs.

"The lady, a Ms. Armon, asked if this had something to do with Sergeant Ford's death. I only repeated that we needed to ask some questions. She's expecting us there at fourteen hundred hours today."

"Where, McGee." shouted Gibbs, while he rummaged through his desk to find his weapons and cap.

"52139 South Haven Street in Mecklenburg, Virginia." McGee stated, and he, Tony and Ziva followed Gibbs out of the Squad Room and into the elevator.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Upon arriving, Gibbs parked the car and the team stared out at the pale blue, Victorian style house before them, complete with a toy strewn lawn including a small slide, tricycles, and other assorted play things. They all filed out of the NCIS van and walked up to the door, Gibbs in the lead, Tony, Ziva, and McGee following respectively. Gibbs knocked twice on the oak front door and heard two small voices call out, "Mommy! Doow!" which was shortly followed by a louder female voice, "I know. Be there in a minute!"

A few seconds later, the door was pulled open, revealing a pretty young woman in her late twenties with short brown hair and tired blue eyes. She was holding one toddler on her hip, a boy with his mother's hair, but with startling green eyes instead of her blue. He was resting his head on his mother's shoulder as another toddler, a little girl with her brother's eyes and long, curly brown hair, held onto her mother's leg. Gibbs' face relaxed as he looked kindly at the two toddlers.

"You must be the people from NCIS." the lady said while hoisting the boy up higher on her hip. "Please, come in. Excuse the mess, we didn't have time to clean up."

"We don't mind." Gibbs said pleasantly. "I'm Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs." he said as he looked down at the toddlers as their mother put the boy down with his sister.

"I'm Christy, Christy Armon. This is Jacob," she indicated the little boy, "and this is Kelly." she indicated the little girl staring up at Gibbs.

The whole team stared at Gibbs with trepidation. Kelly had been the name of Gibbs' own daughter who had tragically been murdered when she was nine. Gibbs, however, showed no sign of sadness at the name of his deceased daughter and just smiled even brighter at the kids.

"I heard you wanted to ask me some questions regarding Sergeant Ford's death." Christy said as they moved into the living room. She and the team sat down on the couches in there while Gibbs stood with the toddlers.

"How did you know the Sergeant?" Tony asked her after receiving a nod of approval from Gibbs, telling him that he was allowed to begin questioning.

"He and I have known each other for years," she began quietly, "we met in high school, and we hit it off immediately. He's even Jacob and Kelly's Godfather." She looked at her kids with a smile. "He is… was like the father they never had."

Gibbs felt a tug at his pant leg and he looked down. Kelly was staring up at him with her big green eyes. "Can you pway with us?" she asked, looking from her brother to Gibbs.

"Kelly, Mr. Gibbs is working right now, and-" Christy began, but was cut off by Gibbs, who hastily cut her off.

"Actually, I would love to play with you two, but only if it's ok with your mother."

Both toddlers looked towards their mother with pleading looks in their eyes. Christy looked to Gibbs and smiled. "Sure, but behave yourselves!" she called as her kids grinned.

Gibbs looked at Tony and said, "You're in charge." and he went off with Kelly and Jacob to the kitchen and family room which was across the hallway from the previous room they had been in.

Gibbs sat down on the floor in front of the paper that Jacob and Kelly were now drawing on. He had, in fact, been telling the truth to Christy by saying that he wished to play with her kids, but he had also come with the intention of talking to them, finding out what they knew about the Sergeant's death. The wonderful thing about kids, he reminded himself, is that they can't lie.

"What are you drawing there?" he asked Jacob as he pulled out a green crayon from the box in front of them.

"Me an' mommy." he said as he scribbled on the paper.

"That's a wonderful idea." Gibbs said kindly to the boy. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his arm and he turned to face the girl. She smiled and handed him a paper. Gibbs looked down at it and saw another scribbled picture which Kelly must have drawn. He smiled at her and asked, "Is this for me to keep?"

"Yeah," she said quietly, and she then sat down in front of him. "You know Baba?"

"Maybe." Gibbs said, thinking that 'Baba' was probably their word for Sergeant Ford.

"Mommy say he gone," began Jacob, who was still coloring away at their small table, "but we go to his house,"

"-an' he there!" Kelly finished quickly, her eyes wide with excitement. "We played an' then Mommy says we gotta go!"

Gibbs looked somewhat puzzled. He was starting to worry about who had truly murdered the Sergeant. He decided to piece together some of the puzzle. "Did your mommy ask one of you to hold something sharp, like a knife?"

Kelly shook her head but, to Gibbs' horror, Jacob nodded. "Yeah. Mommy tol' me to hold it, an' I did. An' then it cut me. I dropped it. See?" Jacob held up his index finger which had a Scooby Doo band-aid on the tip of it.

Gibbs felt a fury well up inside of him which he hadn't felt in a long time. He was getting a pretty good hunch in regards to who murdered the Sergeant, and why Jacob's prints were found on the knife. The reality of it hit him with a powerful wave of dislike and hatred towards the woman who called herself a mother to these poor kids.

"How would you two like to come and see what my work is like?" Gibbs asked them, hoping that they would be ok with leaving their mother.

The twins nodded their heads excitedly. Gibbs grinned. "Cool. Lets see if my friends are done."

Gibbs picked up Kelly and took Jacob's tiny hand and walked with them to the room where McGee, Ziva, Tony, and Christy were. As he entered, they all turned to face him.

"Boss, uh…" Tony began, but Gibbs shook his head. Instead, he turned to face Christy.

"Is 'Baba' Sergeant Ford?" he asked.

A surprised look crossed her face, but she nodded all the same. "They gave him that nickname years ago."

Gibbs nodded and then said, in a more serious tone, "We're gonna need you to come back to NCIS with us."

Christy looked taken aback. "Am I in some kind of trouble?"

Gibbs forced a smile and said, "No, we just need you to identify the body for us. His dog tags say that it was him, but we just need to make sure."

Tony, McGee, and Ziva exchanged glances. The DNA test had proved that the DB was Sergeant Ford. However, they also knew that Gibbs was up to something, and to keep their mouths shut until they knew what was going on.

Christy, however, didn't seem to notice that anything was amiss among the group. She looked at her children and nodded while saying, "Anything to help. But, I need to get their car seats from the car."

Gibbs nodded to McGee. "Agent McGee will help you get whatever you need for Jacob and Kelly."

She nodded, and then she and McGee left the room, Gibbs still holding the now snoozing Kelly and with Jacob in hand. Tony and Ziva walked over to meet him. "Gibbs, what's going on?" Ziva asked quietly as to not awake the sleeping toddler.

"My gut." said Gibbs, and they walked outside to the van where McGee and Christy were installing the car seats.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey y'all! Sorry it's taken me forever to post! I've started school again and I'm taking 7 classes, four of which are AP's, so I'm exhausted! But here you go! Now, go read and check out my spiffy end part!!!**

**Btw, kudos to Pog Mahon for being my super awesome beta-er who gets uberly distracted by everything! Yay Pog!**

Chapter 5

Gibbs and his team returned to NCIS with Christy and the twins in tow. They piled into the elevator as McGee hit the button for the Squad Room floor. Just as they arrived to their desired location, Tony escorted Christy to the team's clustered desks. Ziva and McGee walked over to their seatswhile Gibbs went over to talk with Christy.

"We don't want to bring you to the Morgue while Jacob and Kelly were still with us," Gibbs said quietly as Kelly shifted her arms into a tighter hold around his neck. "However, we'd still like for you to go down and identify the body for us. We can watch them," he nodded towards Jacob and Kelly, "while you do so."

Christy nodded, but cast a wary eye over her shoulder as she saw Abby's gothic form behind Gibbs in the midst of the Squad Room. "You sure it's no trouble for-"

"They'll be just fine with us," Gibbs reassured her as he motioned for Tony to come and escort Christy down to the Morgue. "Tony will lead you down and I'll meet you there as soon as I get Jacob and Kelly settled. I assure you they'll be in the best care imaginable."

"I believe it, Agent Gibbs," Christy smiled. She kissed Jacob and Kelly on the head and said, "I'm going to go with Mr. Tony and Mr. Gibbs to help them with some work. You'll be ok here."

"Ok, Mommy," Jacob said, and he latched himself onto Gibbs the moment his mother walked off with Tony. Tony winked at McGee and began his long flirtations as always with any pretty woman he sees.

Gibbs nodded for Ziva and McGee to follow Tony and Christy down to Autopsy before leading the twins to his desk. Just as he sat them in his chair, Abby walked over, a wide smile across her pale face.

"Hey Gibbs!" she said excitedly, kneeling down to be at the toddlers' height. "Who are these munchkins?"

Kelly and Jacob looked at Abby with wonder in their eyes. Gibbs thought that, if their mother had her way, these kids probably have never seen someone who looked as Abby does.

"They're the god-children of our DB, Sergeant Ford. We have their mom identifying him and we hope to interrogate her. Here," he began, moving closer to Jacob and also kneeling to the boy's height, "Jacob, can you show Abby your cut that you got at your Baba's house?"

Jacob looked slightly shy, but held out his Scooby-Doo wrapped finger all the same.

"Mind if I take off your super cool band-aid?" Abby asked. Jacob nodded and she gently slid it off his tiny finger.

Gibbs saw a quick flash of concern cross Abby's face at the sight of the deep cut, which was oozing around the edges on the front of Jacob's finger. He himself was feeling anger towards their mother rage inside of him once more as Abby's face became happy and cheerful once more.

"You know," she began, looking at the two toddlers in front of her, "I'm sure I could get you a new, and totally awesome, band-aid to go on your finger. And maybe, if you guys are good, I could show you guys my secret stash of stickers for you to play with."

At the word "stickers", the twins' faces lit up with glee, a sight which once more calmed Gibbs' worried face. They clambered off the chair and each grabbed one of Abby's hands. Gibbs signed _Thank you_ to Abby, and, after watching Abby lead the twins over to the elevator, he ran on out of the room and down to the Morgue in time to see the end of the identification process.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Gibbs ran down to the Morgue just as Ducky was unveiling Sergeant Ford's face to Christy. As the door opened, he heard Christy give a small gasp and a choked back sob before she turned to face Gibbs.

"It's him alright," she stuttered, wiping tears away from her eyes as she said it. "It's Wesley."

Gibbs nodded, and turned to face Ziva, who had a curious expression played out on her face.

"Would you excuse us for a moment?" Gibbs asked Christy and Ducky. They nodded and Gibbs pulled Ziva with him from the Morgue. Only once they were clear of the door did Gibbs speak.

"You think she's lying to us about the Sergeant?" he asked quickly. Ziva nodded.

"It took her a while to summon up her tears, but the emotion on her face was real. She truly was sad that he was dead, but she wasn't surprised to see his body like most people are. Gibbs, I think she's hiding something."

Gibbs nodded in agreement, and he and Ziva reentered the room. Christy was still wiping away tears from her face. Ducky stared at the pair in interest, but Gibbs just shook his head.

"Mrs. Armon, we're going to need to ask you a few questions regarding Sergeant Wesley's death. Would you mind following us down to the interrogation room?" Gibbs asked, motioning towards the door. However, at the word "interrogation", Christy's eyes flashed with sudden panic.

"Interrogation?" she asked, sounding perplexed. "You said I wasn't in any trouble."

"You aren't," Gibbs stated, "We're simply trying to figure out how he was murdered."

A worried look still played upon Christy's young face, but she straightened her posture and glared into Gibbs' blank face. "Alright, I'll come. But if you're thinking I know what happened to Wesley, you're sadly mistaken. I loved Wesley dearly, and I would never, ever, do anything to harm him!"

Gibbs nodded slightly, still not taking his eyes off of Christy's own, and he, Tony, Ziva, and McGee escorted her from the room. Once outside, Gibbs turned to Tony and said quietly, "Go check on Abby and the kids. Tell them I'll be up in a bit."

"Got it boss," Tony said eagerly. He watched as Gibbs and the others clambered into the elevator, and then he ran to the staircase and ran up the steps to Abby's lab.

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"Look a' tis one!"

Abby crouched down to see the shining smiley face sticker clutched in Jacobs's tiny hand. He and his sister's faces were beaming with excitement as they looked through Abby's Voodoo doll pillow case, which contained what looked like every sticker that she'd ever collected in her life. Already, both of the twins were covered from head to toe in stickers which ranged from Power Rangers to gothic people.

"That's an awesome sticker Jacob!" she exclaimed excitedly. She peeled off the backing and stuck the sticker on the back of his hand. He giggled and dove back down with his sister into the bag of stickers just as Tony entered the lab.

"Hey Abbs," Tony began, looking down at the sticker children playing on the ground, "you know, they've raided your sticker stash."

"Yeah, I let them," she said in a matter-of-fact way. Abby then saw an almost depressed look on his face as he stared at the kids. "Tony, what's wrong?"

"It's just," Tony began, his sad expression still frozen on his face, "I've always wanted that 'Notebook' sticker that Kelly's wearing."

"Oh Tony!" Abby exclaimed, pulling him into a tight hug as she spoke. "I never knew you liked those sensitive movies!"

"I don't," he muttered, returning her hug, "but Nicole Kidman…isn't she just gorgeous?"

Abby's eyes widened as she hastily let Tony go. "That's just weird, Tony."

"What?" he asked critically, following her as she walked over to her main computer. "Really, who can't resist Nicole…she's almost too perfect…" He ended his daydream as he spied Abby staring at him, one eyebrow raised with a smirk playing across her face. He cleared his throat and asked, "So, do you have anything new for me?"

"As a matter of fact, I do!" she said quickly. She typed something into her computer quickly and pulled up a metal analysis test result. She then turned to face Tony once more. "So, I took a swab of Jacob's finger cut after I noticed that our murder weapon," she held up the knife from the crime scene, "had some flakes of the metal missing from it. This is definitely not a high quality knife, considering it's made of a cheap steel imitation. I found some of the flakes from the knife inside Jacob's wound, showing that he did cut his finger on the knife. However, Jacob could have never killed our sergeant. He doesn't have enough power and force to actually penetrate anyone so deeply with a heavy knife like this."

"So you think someone's trying to frame a two-year-old?" Tony asked aghast.

"That's what it looks like, yeah," Abby finished.

"Alright, thanks Abby. I'll let Gibbs know," Tony said, as he pulled his cell phone from his jacket pocket. Abby beamed and walked back over to where the twins were playing as Tony made to exit the lab. Once he reached the door, a tall man wearing a UPS uniform entered with a small package in his hands. Tony nodded to the man and left the room, dialing Gibbs' number as he went.

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Gibbs was standing behind the one way mirror with McGee and Ziva, waiting for Tony's word on the cut on Jacob's finger before interrogating Christy, who at the moment was sitting at the table on the other side of the mirror. Just as he was about to call Tony, his phone rang. He moved away from Ziva and McGee's conversation on Ziva's Moussad training and answered Tony's call.

"Yeah, Gibbs," he said.

"Hey boss. Just finished with Abby. Apparently, she let the little minions raid her sticker stash and didn't let-"

"The point, DiNozzo!" Gibbs said impatiently.

"Right, boss. Apparently, Abby found evidence of the murder weapon's steel inside Jacob's wound. But there still is no way he could've killed our DB."

"I know that, DiNozzo."

"Of course, boss," Tony continued. "Abby says she'll let us know if anything new-"

_BANG!_

"What the-" Gibbs began, holding the phone away from his ear after the loud noise hit the phone. "DiNozzo, what was that?"

"Gunfire boss! Oh…" Gibbs heard the panic in Tony's voice and felt a sickening feeling in his gut. "Boss, call security. Get to Abby's lab!"

"DiNozzo! Tony!" Gibbs called into the phone, but it was too late. Tony's call ended. "Dammit!"

"Boss?" McGee asked tentatively. He and Ziva had come rushing over at the sound of the gunfire from the phone. Since their room was so small, the shot had echoed around the room which gave them all a feeling of foreboding.

"Get security down to Abby!" he shouted to McGee, and he and Ziva rushed out of the room and down the hall to the staircase.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

At the sound of the gunfire, Tony rushed back to Abby's lab and flew through the door. Inside, he saw Abby, a bleeding wound in her left shoulder, protecting the now screaming toddlers from the view of the UPS man who, Tony saw with a leap of horror, was holding a small black and silver handgun which was aimed directly at Abby's heart.

Tony reached to pull out his own gun and ran up behind the man, but he was too quick. The man turned and pointed his weapon at Tony now, his aim true.

"You move, and I'll kill you, the girl, and the kids," he said in a low, growling voice.

Kelly screamed even louder, crying out, "Momma! Momma!" but the sound of her heart-wrenching wailonly infuriated the man more.

"I told you to shut up!" he howled. Kelly squealed and sobbed into the back of Abby's now blood-soaked shoulder as he returned once again to stare at Tony.

"Security's on its way," Tony began calmly, holding his gun up in the air in a surrender type fashion, "so I advise that you let us go before this gets out of hand."

"This is already out of hand. Now, throw your weapon over there," he motioned towards the Mass Spectrometer, "before we shoot one of the children."

To his horror, Tony felt the nozzle of a gun push on his lower back. He turned and saw two more attackers, both male, point their guns towards Tony and Abby. Tony saw the look of pain on Abby's even paler face and did as he was told.

"Put them in the truck," the first man ordered. The man with the gun against Tony's back grabbed him roughly by the arms and pushed him towards the emergency exit door in Abby's office. The second man walked over to where Abby and the twins were crouching and, after an attempted struggle by Abby, picked up each of the kids by their waists and ran with them to the van.

"No!" Abby pleaded weakly, but it was no use. The first man yanked Abby up by the dog collar around her neck and threw her towards the van. With the gun pointed directly at her head, she surrendered, and was then pushed into the van, Tony following close behind her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey everyone! Sorry it took me so ridiculously long to update! I've been working on a year long project which is kicking my ass but i have a little break now so hopefully I will be able to update sooner now. Also, my writer's block is gone, so yay! So as always, thanks to Pog Mahon for being the world's most awesome-est beta-er in the world! Ok, go read. And review!!!**

**Chapter 6**

Gibbs sprinted to Abby's lab with a speed he never realized he could perform. The door was still open as he leapt through to find the room chaotic but completely free of people. Gibbs felt his nerves buzz with anxiety as he surveyed the room around him. He walked towards the now open emergency exit as McGee and Ziva ran in behind him, closely followed by five security members. Ziva swore to herself in Hebrew, French, and Russian.

"Boss, what the hell happened?" McGee asked urgently.

Gibbs did not respond. He knelt down next to Abby's stash of stickers and, lying next to it, Bert, Abby's beloved stuffed hippo. Gibbs picked Bert up and continued walking towards the emergency exit. He exited through the broken doors and stepped onto the alley street that it connected to. On the ground he spotted tire tracks and, to his horror, blood. He knelt down to look at the blood while rubbing his forehead. The blood was in tiny droplets leading out of the alley, but they ended right before the alleyway met the main road.

"Boss," McGee said, running out to meet him in the alleyway, "Abby had just figured out that Jacob had been sliced by the murder weapon. Someone had made him hold it, just like we thought."

Gibbs continued to stare out of the alleyway, a sickening feeling building up inside his throat. He had promised, _promised_ Abby that he would protect her, and again he had failed her. He let her get kidnapped. Not only that, but Tony and the twins were gone as well! Guilt seemed to seep into his pores as he thought of what would happen to them all, and how he could ever live with himself if anything happened to them. However, worrying wouldn't help him find them any faster, so he turned to face McGee and put his hand on his shoulder, a gesture which terrified McGee more than anything.

"We're going to find them." McGee reassured Gibbs as they turned to walk back into Abby's lab.

"I know McGee." Gibbs said, walking over to Ziva who was quickly pulling out her crime scene investigative tools to help with the search. "We'll find them."

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In the corner of a cold dark room, Abby stirred, tossing and turning in her sleep. She shivered and tried to sit herself up to view her surroundings, but was quickly stopped by a sharp pain in her shoulder. She stared at it and saw that the once bleeding gunshot wound was now wrapped in what looked like shirt fabric. She touched it gingerly and felt the pain surge forth again. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself into a sitting position and blinked the tears from her eyes.

Abby's eyes widened as she stared around at her new room. It was a small, humid room which was surrounded on one side by bars. The other three walls seemed to be made of some kind of plastic covered in a rather hard cloth. There was a steel door in the middle of the bars with a small slot at the very bottom, presumably for food and other such things.

Other than that, the room was quite empty except for two small shadows squirming in the darkest corner of the room. Abby cautiously crawled over to the corner, one hand on her shoulder, and found, to her horror, Kelly and Jacob huddled together in a damp corner.

"Abby!" the twins cried together and threw themselves on her.

Abby fell back and felt the stabbing pain in her shoulder once more but ignored it. Both toddlers were sobbing into her shirt, breaking her heart piece by piece. She hugged them both back and then held them out so she could see them. Kelly had a bloodied lip and Jacob had a small bruise on his cheek, but over all both children seemed physically unharmed.

"Are you guys okay?" she asked, looking for something to clean Kelly's lip with.

Jacob nodded solemnly while Kelly hiccupped. Abby continued to look, but as she did so, she realized that something was missing. Glancing around the room once more, she realized what it was.

"Do either of you know where Tony is?" she asked the twins, fear gripping her heart.

"Got 'im." Jacob said quietly.

Abby stared at the boy in confusion and asked, "Who's got him?"

"The snake…" he said seriously, tears welling up in his eyes.

"The sna-" Abby began, but was quickly cut off by the sound of the door opening behind her.

A tall man with hazel eyes and short brown hair stood in the doorway holding the shirt of a painfully battered Tony in one hand. He pushed him into the room where Tony landed with a thud. Then he glared pointedly over at where Abby and the twins sat. Abby noticed a small glimmer by his left hand and angled her neck to see what it was. She recognized it as the silver handgun which had been held by their original kidnapper. Hate boiled inside of her as she glared at the now grinning man staring right back at her.

"You should get some rest." he said quietly as he turned to leave. "You're next."

The door was slammed shut with a loud bang which reverberated around the room. Once the man was out of sight, Abby rushed over to where Tony lay, awake but unmoved. Blood coated his mouth and leg but from what Abby could tell, they were only minor abrasions. She also spotted numerous bruises and swellings around his chest, arms, and face but saw no permanate damage from them.

Tony rolled over onto his side and groaned, "You ok, Abbs?"

"I've been better." she muttered, still inspecting Tony for any more injuries.

"Figured. Though I thought you were into this kind of thing."

"Tony!" she gasped, repressing a smile with all her might. "We've been kidnapped and all you can think of is whether I find masochism kinky?"

"Needed to lighten the mood." he said, and sat up with the help of Abby and Jacob, who hovered behind him shyly. "You ok buddy?"

"Uh huh." Jacob said to Tony.

"Alright." Tony turned to Abby. "When do you think we can expect Gibbs to get here?"

"What?" she asked, wondering if Tony had reached Gibbs somehow.

"When do you think Gibbs will find us? He always does. I think he put GPS chips in us or something, cause whenever something bad happens to one of us, he always finds us."

A light of hope sprung up within Abby as she thought about what Tony said. It was true; Gibbs always did seem to find anyone from his team whenever they were in trouble. When Tony and Ziva were taken in that cargo container, Gibbs had found them before anything horrible had happened.

"Soon, I hope." Abby said, hugging Kelly tightly as she imagined their freedom.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey everyone! Sorry it took me so long to update! No excuses, except for crappy internet stuff. But yeah, thanks a ton to Pog Mahon for at least editing this early on so it would be ready for you all! Hopefully enjoy. ****  
**

**Chapter 7**

"Damnit, damnit, damnit!"

Ziva's curses echoed around the squad room as she slammed her fist down on her desk. She and McGee had been up all night looking for any clue as to what happened to Abby, Tony, and the twins. Both of them had found only dead ends.

"What?" McGee asked, looking up from his computer to gaze wearily at Ziva.

"Nothing, again!" she said, just as wearily. "I checked all connections to Abby from ex-boyfriends to old lab partners and found nothing. Same with Tony. Anyone with a real grudge towards him is either in jail or has a solid alibi."

"Same here with those connected to the Armons." McGee muttered. "No outside connections check out with the kids or Christy and...wait a sec." McGee's computer was beeping, showing that he had found an item of importance. "Ziva, come look at this! I found something." She sat down next to him and gazed fixedly at the screen.

"Look, he's got a past record of attempted kidnapping as well, earning him a restraining order as well." He said, feeling a small hopeful feeling bubbling in his chest.

Ziva looked up from the picture on the screen and smiled grimly at McGee. "Let's get Gibbs."

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While the rest of his team had been searching for information about the kidnappers, Christy was sitting in the interrogation room, while Gibbs watched her through the two-way mirror to see her reaction to her children's disappearance. For the first hour she had cried on and off, but now she sat still and stared down at her bottle of water as if she was simply sleeping with her eyes open. So far her reaction had seemed genuine, but he still felt as if she was hiding something from him.

The door opened and Ziva and McGee walked into the room where Gibbs stood. He turned to them hopefully, wondering if they had news about Abby and the others. He betrayed no facial emotion to them though, preferring to keep it to himself.

Ziva hurried up to Gibbs and showed him a file folder, hastily telling him what they had found. Gibbs nodded his thanks and left the room quickly, only to reappear on the other side of the mirror with Christy.

She stood up the minute Gibbs walked in, looking exhausted and anxious.

"Agent Gibbs, any word?"

"Not yet, but we're still looking." he said, motioning for her to sit once more. She obeyed.

"Agent Gibbs," Christy began in a frustrated tone, "why am I still here? I should be out there looking for my children. I already identified Wesley for you, so what more can I do?"

Gibbs pulled out the file folder and handed it to her. "You can help by telling us about this man."

Christy opened the folder and began to scan the page. Gibbs watched as her eyes grew wide and hateful. She faced him once more.

"I don't understand…"

"Nathan Corter, forty-nine years old, father of Kelly and Jacob-"

"Yes, I know that!" she snapped, still glaring pointedly at Gibbs. "I meant what does he have to do with my children?"

Gibbs leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. "We were hoping you could tell us."

Comprehension dawned on her face. "You think Nate had something to do with my children's kidnapping?" The hate flared in her eyes some more as she accused, "And you think that I had something to do with this? I love my children!"

"I have no doubt that you do." Gibbs said calmly. "We weren't accusing. We just want to know what happened to both your children and my people. So what can you tell us about your ex-husband?"

"He's a bastard." She said quickly, sitting up taller in her seat. "We were married for two years, one of those years with Kelly and Jacob. He had always been rather quiet and reserved around me before they were born, but after…" her voice lowered slightly as if he could hear her, "After the twins were born, he started to travel more, and hardly spoke to me or the kids while he was gone. When he was home, he would continually yell at the kids when they'd cry, even though they were just infants! Once he slapped Jacob so hard when he screamed that he almost knocked him unconscious. That's when I threw him out of the house. It wasn't easy, though."

Christy rolled up a sleeve and showed her arm to Gibbs. He grabbed her wrist gently and looked closer. Right below her elbow was a two-inch-long white scar which seemed to glow on her tan skin. He let go of her wrist and she pulled her sleeve back down.

"He tried to stab my stomach but I blocked it, sort of. Two weeks later, while I was shopping in a supermarket with the twins, he tried to kidnap them while I was looking for fruit. He would have succeeded too if there hadn't have been two cops stopping for coffee right next door. That's when the restraining order was filed against him. I haven't seen him since."

She slumped back in her chair and wiped away a stray tear from her cheek. "I thought after that that I could keep them safe. I moved, installed all kinds of home security programs, hell, I even had both of the kids fingerprinted in case they ever were taken again."

Gibbs nodded, understanding now why Jacob's fingerprints were in the system. He looked Christy directly in the eye and said, "I promise you, my team and I will do everything possible to bring your children home to you safely."

She hiccupped and stared back at him. "Your people, the two who were taken with my babies, will they take care of Jacob and Kelly?"

"They're good people and excellent agents." He said, deciding it was best not to tell Christy that Abby was a lab tech, though he silently thought that Abby was just as tough as any agent he had. He stood up as Christy nodded and turned to leave the room. As he reached the door, he turned and faced her once more.

"Is there any feature that your ex has that could help us find him?"

She thought quietly for a second and then said, "Well, he is rather tall, around six feet tall, and…oh! He has a tattoo on his left shoulder. A tattoo of a snake."


End file.
